James South was born on Oct. 7 1919 in northeast Texas where his family were sharecroppers. He joined the Army in 1940. In 1944 South deployed to Normandy seven days after D-Day, the beginning of the Allied invasion of France. He landed in Normandy between June 6 and Aug. 21 1944. The invasion was known as the 'Beginning of the end" of World War II. The allies liberate the French city of Caen from Nazi occupation on July 19, they liberated Paris on Aug. 25 and eventually crossed the Rhine Rive in March leading to the surrender of Germany and the end of the war in Europe on May 7, 1945. South receive many letters from his girlfriend Sophie the four years he was gone. They married after the war and were married for 55 years. South says his father taught him that "money wasn't the goal in life- it was happiness."